Gerry McCann says 'every parent has lost their child, even if it is momentarily'

Gerry McCann, whose daughter vanished seven and a half years ago, is urgingparents to download a new smart phone app to help find missing youngsters

The father of Madeleine McCann said "every parent loses a child" as he urged the public to help find missing youngsters by signing up to a new mobile 'phone rescue alert.

Gerry McCann, whose eldest daughter vanished seven and a half years ago, said even losing a child for a moment was intolerable.

"Every parent has lost their child, even if it is momentarily - in a playground, in a supermarket - and knows how terrifying it is."

Appealing with wife Kate for people to download the new smart phone app, he said: "I'm sure it would have increased the chances of finding Madeleine."

The couple, both 46, werejoined by Hugh Grant and parents of other lost children for their plea to the public to back the scheme.

It came as new National Crime Agency figures reveal a child is reported missing in the UK every five minutes. From 2012 to 2013 there were 306,000 reports of missing people.

Mrs McCann, an ambassador for Missing People, said: "People are a crucial resource and are very willing as we know from our own experience."

Speaking on ITV's Good Morning Britain, she added: "The Child Rescue Alert is based on the Amber Alert System in America - already 685 children have been reunited with their families so we know it works."

She has previously said: "As a parent of an abducted child, it is the most painful and agonising experience you could ever imagine."

Coral Jones, mother of murdered five year old April, said: "If we had all this before we would have had more of a chance of having April home."

Four Weddings and a Funeral star Grant said: "To let everyone in the country know that this child is missing, with a photograph, could mean the difference between life and death.

"The first hour or two is crucial and it is a good function for a smart phone. It is a brilliant idea."

The dedicated app sends out alerts as soon as a child disappears.

So far 58,000 people across the country have signed up to the scheme.

Missing People's Chief Executive Jo Youle said: "If your child goes missing you want the whole world to stop and search. The Child Rescue Alert enables members of the public to receive the alerts for vulnerable and high risk missing people straight to their phone and they can help get that child back very quickly.

Nearly two thirds of cases - 64 per cent - involve children and teens with 15 to 17 year olds being reported missing most often. The majority, almost 97 per cent, of people are likely to be found safe and well within 48 hours.

Three-year-old Madeleine disappeared in Portugal's Praia da Luz in May 2007 while her parents were dining nearby with friends.

The couple from Rothely, Leicestershire, believe their daughter, who would now be 11, could still be alive.

Grant said: "To let everyone in the country know that this child is missing, with a photograph, could mean the difference between life and death.

"The first hour or two is crucial and it is a good function for a smart phone. It is a brilliant idea."--------------------------------------------------------

What a shame the McCanns did NOT have a recent 'photograph' taken, say, by her mother, say again, sitting by a kiddies paddliing pool, at the Ocean Club, with her dad and sister, just a few hours before Madeleine went 'missing'

How crucial and brilliant would that have been?

Oh, hang on.............

They did manage to 'produce' a 'photograph' of a child,(phew, luckily!) nobody in PDL would recognise if they were stood next to her, because it was months (year?) 'out of date' . Very 'cutesy' but about of much use as a chocolate teapot, as an 'aide' to 'find/locate' the child, with the much longer blonde hair, that went 'missing' after being deliberately left alone, with her even younger siblings, in an unlocked holiday apartment.

How brilliant, as Huge Grant says, would it have been if the McCanns had a photo of Madeleine taken earlier on the actual day she went 'missing' that they could of had 'copied' and distributed to the hundreds of local people and police 'searching' for her, the very next day after she 'disappeared'?

Grant said: "To let everyone in the country know that this child is missing, with a photograph, could mean the difference between life and death.

"The first hour or two is crucial and it is a good function for a smart phone. It is a brilliant idea."

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Of course it is...which is why the 'App promoters' Kate and Gerry spent the first crucial hour or two praying like Arabs, deleting their phone records, getting some sleep, and waiting until the morning so they could go out and 'search' in the daylight when, according to Kate's bewk, no one was around to see them 'jumping over hedges and ditches'

Are the McCann's really the best people to be ambassadors for missing people?

Really?

Every time I see them on the TV I turn the channel over because I cannot bear to look at them or listen to them. They are lying scumbags who have got rich quick from the death and fake abduction of their daughter.

The people of this country are being brainwashed by them and their PR team. They are being forced down our throats. And that makes me very angry.

Co-ordinating in French navy, Gerry with his consultant-oh-yes-I-am's stripes...

...and that cupcake icing pink tie...! It gets worse every time I see it.

Kate's muted sequins are shrouded in a pea-hennish cardigan...

...and I like how her hair matches the lampshade.

Whilst the floral arrangement between them recalls the images of their missing daughter Madeleine -

-candy pink hydrangeas mixed in with those of a rather sinister shade... Ugly.

Is that the shadow of Clarence over Gerry's left shoulder...??

No shame at all and it just goes to show that Andy Pandy and his bunch of Merry Coppers will not be bringing these two in for questioning any time soon folks.....we have all been played in the biggest F-ck up of the Century . IMO of course !!!

@Brian Griffin wrote:The sad thing is, it's actually a very good idea, like the milk carton thing in the US. I'd just rather someone else were promoting it!

In my opinion.

Totally agree Brian, it kind of puts you off looking into it further if those 2 are associated with something or promoting it, regardless of the worthiness of the cause. Cant help also thinking what's in it for them

Surely those responsible for the promotion of this app ought to have selected people who have a far higher degree of sympathy from the general public than they do, and perhaps people who were genuinely parents of a missing/abducted child

@Brian Griffin wrote:The sad thing is, it's actually a very good idea, like the milk carton thing in the US. I'd just rather someone else were promoting it!

In my opinion.

Totally agree Brian, it kind of puts you off looking into it further if those 2 are associated with something or promoting it, regardless of the worthiness of the cause. Cant help also thinking what's in it for them

Surely those responsible for the promotion of this app ought to have selected people who have a far higher degree of sympathy from the general public than they do, and perhaps people who were genuinely parents of a missing/abducted child

Imo. A good thing in the right hands.

A bad thing in the wrong hands.

Today using only cellphones.

Tomorrow - microchipping.

No thanks.

____________________“‘Conspiracy stuff’ is now shorthand for unspeakable truth.”– Gore Vidal

The parents who thought it fine to leave 3 infants alone in an apartment in a foreign country whilst they dined and drank with friends are actually promoting an app for missing children. Why would anyone listen to them? You couldn't choose anyone more inappropriate to promote this product. As usual it all beggars belief.

Why dont the Mc Canns help the cause of Missing Children by simply doing what many of us do?Stay at home with their children. One parent go out - one parent stay in - with the children.

Enjoy the company of your children. Don't lock them in an apartment and go out for the evening. There - thats my advice to prevent you child going missing.

ETA - Of course, all parents need a night out occaisionally...... so what do they do???Get a babysitter! or a nanny... or a childminder - just like they had at OC PdL.

Except of course we know that there really wasnt any negligence going on - it was a myth created to enable a child to be abducted. So these parents engaged in a bit of negligence in order to stage an abduction in order to explain why a child had disappeared. And now they are out there promoting this App for Missing Children.It s all a bit fishy

Who on earth would consider using the Mccanns as a good marketing ploy? Particularly in any role that offered parental advice in keeping children safe!! The McCann track record on these matters has been decidedly negligent.The fact that most of the population know this does not reflect well on Missing People.

As for the McCanns, well, it is quite clear that the strategy that has been devised for them, requires them to brazen it all out....and hope their past all goes away.

Eddie and Keela alerted to items and places concerned with the McCanns - and importantly to no other items or places.

According to Eddie and Keela, the body of Madeleine McCann lay lifeless behind the sofa in Apartment 5a, clinging to the only thing from which she could derive any comfort; a soft toy called 'Cuddle cat'.

Former Met Police Chief Lord Stevens:"There was no hard evidence because of the sheer inadequacy of the Portuguese investigation. There's absolutely no chance the parents of Madeleine McCann would be charged with her murder in this country. I've been a detective at the most senior level for 30 years and have never seen such a witch-hunt, or one based on such flimsy evidence."

Ch Insp Tavares de Almeida: "Kate and Gerald McCann are involved in the concealment of the cadaver of their daughter Madeleine McCann. From what has been established up to now, everything indicates that the McCann couple, in self-defence, doesn't want to deliver the cadaver immediately and voluntarily."

Kate's book 'madeleine', Page 219: "Did they really believe that a dog could smell the 'odour of death' three months later from a body that had been so swiftly removed?"

After forensic analysis of the 'Last Photo' there is little doubt now that the pool photo CANNOT POSSIBLY have been taken on the Thursday 3rd May, but most likely on the Sunday 29th April. So, where was Madeleine at lunchtime on Thursday? We don't know, but we can begin to "purport theories" based both on strong evidence, and lack of evidence.

Dr Gonçalo Amaral, retired PJ Coordinator: "The English can always present the conclusions to which they themselves arrived in 2007. Because they know, they have the evidence of what happened, they don't need to investigate anything. When MI5 opens their files, then we will know the truth."

Ex-Met DCI Colin Sutton: "The most likely scenario is that Madeleine was stolen to order by slave traders and smuggled into Africa for a rich family who wanted a white child."

Ex-Met DCI Andy Redwood had a "revelation moment" on BBC1's Crimewatch on 14th October 2013 when he announced that Operation Grange had eliminated the Tanner sighting - which opened up the 'window' of opportunity', in accordance with their remit, to allow the staged abduction to happen.

Tracey Kandohla: "A McCann pal told The Sun Online: "Some of the savings have been siphoned off from the Find Maddie Fund into a fixed asset account, which financial experts have advised them to do. It can be used for purchases like buying a house or building equipment."

Gerry McCann called for an example to be made of 'trolls'. SKY reporter Martin Brunt doorstepped Brenda Leyland on 2 October 2014 after a 'Dossier' was handed in to Police by McCann supporters. She was then found dead in a Leicester hotel room the next day. Brenda paid the price.